What is it about John Hackelman and Light Heavyweights in the UFC? Hackelman made his name as the trainer of UFC legend and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell. Liddell was one of the company’s first real stars during their boom period, a dominant champion that everyone could latch onto. Now that Chuck is long-since retired, Hackelman’s latest horse in the race is the very tough Glover Teixeira, one of the guys that is seen as the future of the Light Heavyweight division, right up there with Jon Jones.
Teixeira squares off against Ryan Bader this Wednesday night on Fox Sports 1 in yet another Wednesday night experiment and Hackelman sees no way for Bader to defeat his guy.
“I just think that Glover has too much power, too much punching, his wrestling defense is good enough to thwart any of Bader’s attempts,” he said. “I’m sure Bader’s going to try to keep it standing to lull Glover into some kind of comfort like it’s going to be standing and then he’s going to go in for shots, but I think Glover’s a little too sharp for that. He hits too hard. He hits too hard, basically. If he does end up on his back, he’s going to get right back up. He’s a world-class jiu-jitsu black belt.”